Marvel’s ‘S.H.I.E.L.D.’ Pilot Features ‘Angel’ Actor J. August Richards in Mystery Role

Published 2 years ago
by
Sandy Schaefer
, Updated May 6th, 2014 at 9:56 am,

We’re currently waiting to find out for certain if ABC is going to pick up Marvel and Joss Whedon’s S.H.I.E.L.D. TV pilot to series, even though production wrapped almost two months ago at this point. However, assuming that happens, it might be a while before any superheroes and/or important players from the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe make an appearance (which is partly because Whedon and his fellow showrunners have been too busy to plan that far ahead just yet).

There will be a familiar face from the Whedon-verse in the S.H.I.E.L.D. pilot – not counting Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg) returning after his (apparent) demise during Marvel and Whedon’s The Avengers – and the individual in question is actor J. August Richards.

SHIELDTV.net, which was the first to break this news, is confirming that Richards makes an appearance in the S.H.I.E.L.D. pilot, but is not sure whether or not he’s onboard for additional episodes; nor, for that matter, which character he is playing. Whedon has always been open about the fact that his Marvel TV series “needs to be its own thing” and won’t incorporate many characters from either the MCU or any comic books, so that makes it difficult to properly speculate about just what Richards’ “mystery role” on the show is.

That’s not to say that Richards – who was great as the street-smart demon fighter Charles Gunn on Angel and thereafter starred on the Conviction and Raising the Bar TV shows – won’t play a significant role in the S.H.I.E.L.D. proceedings. However, it is a fair bet that he won’t be portraying anybody that comic book fans have met in a previous form (be it on the printed page or in an animated TV series).

All the same, I speak as a longtime Whedonite when I say: any Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly or even Dollhouse alum who comes back to play some more in Whedon’s sandbox (like Richards) will be welcomed by me.

30 Comments

Post a Comment

Want to change your avatar?Go to Gravatar.com and upload your own (we'll wait)!

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Rules: No profanity or personal attacks. Use a valid email address or risk being banned from commenting.

Notify me of followup comments via e-mail

If your comment doesn't show up immediately, it may have been flagged for moderation. Please try refreshing the page first, then drop us a note and we'll retrieve it. Keep in mind that we do not allow external links in the comments.

acathla 1 year ago

I love watching something from Whedon, and seeing actors from his previous shows/movies popping up. Always liked Richards and am glad to see Marvel bringing out the big gunns for their tv show.

It’s weird waiting for a Joss Whedon show after Firefly and Dollhouse I’m just hoping Shield doesn’t crash and burn like those other two shows have, also Nathan Fillion has to show up at one point or another.

Well I don’t literally mean he has to, it’s not like if Joss doesn’t have Nathan Fillion on the show it’s going to crash and burn otherwise we’d all be waiting for the tenth season of Firefly. All I mean is “It’d be really good if Joss somehow got Nathan Fillion to make a guest appearance” since he is a good actor.

I was once at the airport with a friend (years ago — think 1970s) and Greg Morris was sitting across the aisle from us (he’d been in town for a dinner theater production IIRC). I had to stop my friend from asking him what it was like working with Bob Crane.

Same here. But This show could be a good way to set up characters not familar with the general public. If he’s cage in a few episodes here and there it might be a good way to introduce them. Similar to how they were going to make short films to introduce characters. They could use the show as a introduction

Exactly what I was thinking, also you could introduce the idea of Heroes for Hire. Maybe you could have the episode inspiring Luke to create Heroes For Hire. I’m really hoping they also get the character Paladin to show up at one point.

Too “nice guy”, “baby face” and “clean cut” looking for Luke Cage. Look Cage needs to be “ruggedly handsome” like Idris Elba. Introducing Black Panther on a t.v. show without his film debut first would be disrespectful to such an iconic character.

@james, I think Idris Elba would have made a great Luke Cage plus Idris Elba does a VERY convincing “New York” accent. I just personally don’t want to see him as Luke Cage now though after already being in the MCU as Heimdall. They someone similar to Elba but uniquely different and new face or unknown.

That’s it? Richards will only be making an appearance in the pilot? I’ve seen the new cast. They don’t exactly impress me, with the exception of Clark Gregg. I think Whedon is making a mistake by not allowing Richards to become a regular.

EASTER EGG!!! 54 minutes into the Pilot the new girl yells “Gunn stop!” and grabs him…..
Could not stop laughing…..
Like when they had Castle quote stuff from Firefly….
Whedon really knows how to make you laugh!!!